the United Kingdom could offer a dependent Bermuda a new relationship in 1997.

Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan even requested a transcript of the interview that Mr. Rupert Allason gave to VSB News.

But after studying the transcript, Sir John said Mr. Allason was only expressing his personal opinion. "It's a wish list that might become a reality,'' the Premier told The Royal Gazette . "From what I can gather, it is not the opinion of the British Government.'' Mr. Allason, Conservative MP for Torbay in the southwest of England, is married to a Bermudian and has kept a residence on the Island for more than 10 years. He is chairman of the Anglo-Bermudian Parliamentary Group at Westminster.

While maintaining he was neutral on the Independence question, Mr. Allason said he saw no advantage for Bermuda in splitting with the UK.

And he predicted Bermudians would soon see a new benefit if it remained a colony.

Once Hong Kong was returned to the Chinese in 1997 "the whole issue of British Dependent Territory passports would be reviewed,'' he told The Royal Gazette . "It's likely Bermudian holders of those would have the right of abode in the European Union.'' At the same time, he said Bermuda would be allowed to keep its own Immigration controls.

No such "metropolitan'' relationship would be offered to an Independent Bermuda, he said.

Sir John said he raised the issue in a November 24 speech to the Dependent Territories Conference in London and "I do not know of any British Government policy'' to offer dependent territories other than Hong Kong a metropolitan relationship. "I've asked them if there is,'' he said.

"For those countries which are metropolitanised, Independence may or may not be a significant consideration,'' Sir John said in the November speech.

French or Dutch territories with similar relationships "enjoy benefits from France and the Netherlands which do not apply in the case of the British Dependent Territories.'' Sir John has said the recently-announced closure of the Royal Navy's HMS Malabar represented a further erosion of ties with Britain and brought the Independence issue to the fore. Bermudians should decide the issue in a referendum, he said.

Mr. Allason said he could not speak for the UK Government but felt his reading of the situation at Westminster was accurate. He had been pushing for a metropolitan relationship for Bermuda for four years, he said.

And he felt Independence would be costly. "To abandon and to lose existing arrangements that one has, particularly with the European Union, I would think is slightly eccentric,'' Mr. Allason told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Most of the arguments he had heard in favour of cutting ties with the United Kingdom were "emotional'' ones.

"A nation and a flag and a national anthem are all significant, but they may not necessarily be a substitute for a dollar in the pocket, particularly when there is no going back,'' he said.

It would be different if Bermuda exported products that would benefit from a tariff-free relationship with the United States through the North American Free Trade Agreement, he said.

"I'm hoping to be persuaded,'' Mr. Allason said. "I want to listen to all the arguments and I want to hear what the arguments are in favour of Independence.

"It may well be that there is some aspect of Independence that I haven't appreciated that will be of enormous and compelling economic significance to the people of Bermuda.

"I must confess that as of yet, I haven't seen it.'' Mr. Allason thought of Bermuda as independent already. "Bermuda is self-governing,'' he said. "If there are some aspects that Bermuda wants to exercise control over, I'm sure that that can be arranged.'' Because of Bermuda's high standard of living, "you would want to be offered something pretty attractive'' to go with Independence, he said.

"I can well understand that with the Bases closing, that people might be nervous about the future. Whether or not that is the right moment to say, well, we're going to plough our own furrow, seems to be ... interesting.''